Celata Tech appoints four new members to Board of Directors

Alex Show

Jeff Paine

Dr. Dharmasri Kumaratunge

Thareendra Kalpage

• Brings diversified leadership and expertise to accelerate Celata’s growth and transformation

Celata Tech has announced four new appointments to its board of directors, effective April 2023. The new members are Prof. Alex Show, Dr. Dharmasri Kumaratunge, Thareendra Kalpage and Jeff Paine.

With the new appointments, Celata has formed a diverse group of leaders with extensive experience and knowledge from industries such as economics, financial services, information technology, and private equity to support its new era of growth and transformation. The new Celata board members join Founder CEO and Chairman Dr. Thiran De Silva and Chief Administration Officer Asha Perera.

“We are thrilled to welcome such high-calibre executives to the Celata Board of Directors, which we view as a testament to Celata’s leadership in delivering enterprise and consumer products and digital transformation at an unprecedented scale, as well as the opportunities that lie ahead,” said De Silva. “As a company that focuses on a unique market segment, Celata’s business has experienced tremendous momentum, as evidenced by our financial performance, user engagement statistics, and, perhaps most importantly, the kind of talent that has joined the firm in the past few months. I look forward to working with this distinguished board to assist in taking Celata into its next exciting growth phase.”

“As Celata enters a new phase, building a strong board of directors with strategic experience in various industries will drive more growth, innovation, and scalability,” he said adding, “The Location Intelligence technology, product, and content are more relevant than ever, and our board is comprised of the most intelligent individuals in these fields. I look forward to continuing to build and innovate for our global clients and partners with this group.”

Prof. Alex Show is a Professor (Practice) in the National University of Singapore School of Computing’s Information Systems and Analytics department. He was Accenture’s Managing Director, Health and Public Service. Alex became HDB’s Chief Information Officer in 1989 after working as a Structural Engineer since 1981. Alex became Senior Vice-President of StarHub Ltd. in 2003. He was CIO, Head, Enterprise Risk Management, and Head, Business Market.

Prof. Alex was active in the IT community. He was the Singapore Computer Society President from 1997 to 2001 and led IT Management Association from 1995 until 1999. From 2001 to 2012, Prof. Alex spearheaded the Singapore Chapter of the Project Management Institute. He is also Cloud Security Alliance Singapore Chapter Chairperson.

Dr. Dharmasri Kumaratunge was an Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). He has 31 years of Central Banking expertise in Economic Research, Information Technology, Payments and Settlements. He was the Board Director of LankaClear Ltd. and a Board Member of Lanka Financial Services Bureau Ltd. and the National Institute of Business Management (NIBM). He was also a member of the Expert Committee for Digital Banking Blockchain-related Industries, the National Transit Card Implementation Project Steering Committee, and the Expert Committee to Formulate Regulations to Execute a Digitized System for Spot Fine for Traffic Offenses.

Thareendra Kalpage is the Co-Founder of Digital Zyndicate Co, a company that places large bets on transformative ideas, technology, and people. Digital Zyndicate assists entrepreneurs in their early stages. Thareendra was a member of Epic Lanka Technologies’ senior executive team prior to founding Digital zyndicate, where he led the development and launch of new platforms that drove the company to become one of the country’s leading and most innovative software firms, with an absolute majority market share on eGovernment initiatives in Sri Lanka. Thareendra previously worked for and held leadership positions at Microsoft Sri Lanka, Sierra Information Technologies, and Samson Information Technologies. Thareendra was born and raised in Sri Lanka, and he is also a well-known author of economics, technology, and global politics articles. 

Jeff Paine is a 28-year Visa, Microsoft, Reuters, and the Royal Bank of Canada veteran. In 2014, he founded PS-engage, a government relations consultancy firm. PS-engage advises leading IT, e-commerce, banking, and payments organisations on positive engagement with governments and regulatory and policy activities. 

He is also the Asia Internet Coalition’s Managing Director, promoting smart digital economy regulatory reforms. Jeff is the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore’s Small and Medium Businesses Committee Co-Chair and was the Financial Services Committee Co-Chair for six years. Jeff sits on the Tax Feedback Panel of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS).